Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 9: 163–192, 1997. 163 c 1997 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. Training of poor readers’ phonological decoding skills: Evidence for syllable-bound processing HANNEKE W. M. J. WENTINK 1 , WIM H. J. VAN BON 1 & ROBERT SCHREUDER 2 1 Department of Special Education, and 2 Interfaculty Research Unit for Language and Speech, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands Abstract. A flash card computer program designed to increase decoding speed in reading was evaluated with a sample of 55 eight- to twelve-year-old Dutch poor readers by using a pretest- training-posttest control group design. The reading level of the poor readers was comparable to the reading level of normal readers in grade two. After 8 weeks of practicing (twice a week) for 30 minutes per session, children in the training group showed substantial improvements in decoding speed not only on pseudowords directly practiced during the training, but also in untrained pseudowords and in existing words. The no-training control group did not improve in decoding speed from pre- to posttest. The results, furthermore, indicate that syllable-bound processes play a role in phonological decoding in Dutch, and that the flash card method used in this study stimulates poor readers to decode letter strings into syllabic units, which leads to an increase in decoding speed. The role of the syllable in phonological decoding and the potential of a specific flash card technique as a means to improve decoding skills of poor readers are discussed. Key words: Developmental dyslexia, Intervention, Phonological decoding, Reading disability, Speed, Syllables Introduction It is generally assumed that the majority of poor readers have a deficit in phonological decoding skills (e.g., Badian 1994; Beech & Harding 1984; Rack, Snowling & Olson 1992; Snowling 1980, 1981; Vellutino, Scanlon & Spearing 1995; Wagner & Torgesen 1987; Yap 1993). Phonological decoding refers to converting written symbols into a sound-based representation. Acti- vating phonological word forms aids in retrieving the associated meanings from the mental lexicon. The difficulties of poor readers in decoding pseudo- words (orthographically regular and phonologically legal letter strings that do not form existing words) suggest that at least some of their difficulties in word reading are due to problems in generating the phonological code that is required in beginning readers to access the mental lexicon (Mason 1978; Rack et al. 1992; Snowling 1981; Vellutino et al. 1995). There is considerable